This Is Where the Serpent Lives by Daniyal Mueenuddin

Friday, May 8, 2026

This Is Where the Serpent Lives by Daniyal Mueenuddin is a very good novel.  Like almost all novels set in Southeast Asia (Pakistan in this particular case), it deals with corrpution, abuse of power, the way the caste system holds people back, and disapointment and failure at trying to get ahead in society while assuming that one is owed more in life and is justified in trying to take it illegally.  The story is built around one of the major landowner/political families.  They have an impressive mansion in the city and a huge farm with and impressive mansion there, too.  The farm has always been run like in feudal times with peasants living in a village there while being totally dependent upon the landowner, being taken advantage of by the landowner, and often abused by him.  The main characters are two of the peasants from different generations who have shown themselves to be worthy of trust, two generations of the landowners, and the farm manager for both of those generations.  One of the favored peasants has become the personal driver of the landowners--first the one of his youth and then of the son who has inherited the estate later.  The other favored peasant has proven himself as intellectually talented and has become a favorite of the wife of the new generation of the owners.  Times seem to be changing in general for many Pakistanis.  The newer generations of landowners/politicians have been in the USA or England for higher education and are not as crude nor as willfully mean toward their villagers and many people living in the cities seem to be progressing better economically.  For landowners, their experiences in Western societies and aversion to the harsh tactics used by their parents with their servants have made it easier for the persons they trust.  Stealing through corrutpion is rising to higher lives as those who become more educated or successful strive to take more and more advantage opportunities to do so in hopes of becoming rich themselves.  The book isn't a specific story just about these specific characters, it is a story of what life has been like for generations in India, Pakistan, and other southeast Asian countries and of how resistent the rulers are to change there even though resentment continues to build among the peasants about their state in life.  I gave the book 4 1/2 stars out of 5.

Python's Kiss by Louise Erdrich

Tuesday, Apr. 28, 2026--San Antonio

Phython's Kiss by Louise Erdrich is a collection of short stories.  Each is unique, and all of them are well written.  The author is of Native American Heritage, so some of the stories relate to their life experiences and to their native beliefs.  One of the stories that sticks most in my mind is about a ferel cat that a man takes into his apartment to try to tame because he is concerned about the affects that ferel cats are having on bird life.  He especially wants to save a Painted Bunting in his neighborhood, but he has met his match with this particular cat.  He has to rig up a system using two lanyards and a kettlebell so that the bathroom door will stay shut by force keeping the cat there after he has come home to find damage by it in the rest of his apartment.  But all of the stories are worth reading.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5. 

Cafe Con Lychee by Emery Lee

Tuesday, Apr. 21, 2026--San Antonio

Cafe Con Lychee by Emily was a disappointment to me.  The concept of the story is interesting, but it suffers, I think, from poor writing.  I knew within the first 20% of the book what the ending would be (and I'm not referring to the most obvious part of the two main characters becoming a couple in love which every reader should expect in this type of a book).  The route there was far too long with too many repeated examples of Theo being pissy in thoughts, words, and behavior;  and of both Theo and Gabi showing far more immaturity and lack of seld-assurance than should be the cast for intelligent 11th graders (maybe the characters should have been two eighth graders about to move from middle school to high school rather than 11th graders about to move on from high school).  Since it is supposed to be a young adult romance novel, it sure didn't let the romance develop much at all; it essentially ended within a few pages of the first signs of romance and only one kiss.   Maybe the author was afraid the book would be banned if it were written about the gay romance instead about school rules and regulations, problems with local businesses competing with new competition not owned by locals, so many side friendship relationships that all seemed to have more problems than they were worth, the drawbacks of being children of ethnic parents who are set in their ways and expectations, etc.  I made it through the whole book and judged it to be worth no more than 3 stars out of 5.  (That's somewhat equivalent to a student making a C in school today when probably 85% or more of all grades given are often A's.)

Brawler by Lauren Groff

Saturday, Apr. 18, 2026--San Antonio

Brawler by Lauren Groff is a book of marvelous short stories.  The topics may at times be disturbing, but the joy in reading them is found in their construction.  She is a miracle worker when it comes to composing sentences in unique ways that would stop me from reading for a mement to admire and appreciate them.  I highly recommend this book and gave it 5 stars out of 5.

The Husbands by Holly Gramazio

Monday, Apr. 13, 2026--San Antonio

The Husbands by Holly Gramazio was named a best book of 2024 by many sites.  I found it very enjoyable to read for the most part with some humorous moments throughout, but it became a bit tedius during the last third of the book.  It's the story of a woman who has delayed marriage and is unsure whether she ever wants to be married.   But one day she returns home and discovers a husband in her home.  Her friends know him, her phone has photos of their marriage, and the phone has texts between them.  Some erratic things seem to be happening in her attic--lights buzzing and brightening, so she sent her husband up to check on it.  He didn't come back.  Instead another husband came down.  In time, she figured out that if she didn't like a new husband, she could create a reset by sending the husband back into the attic.  But not a reset to the old situation; instead, a another new husband would come down.  She spends a year sending husbands back and getting new ones.  Occasionally she gets one she wants to try to see if she wants to keep him, but eventually she changes her mind or a husband she likes goes into the attic on his own for sme reason and is then gone forever.  (Except, as she is often exchanges husbands many times a day before she gets one she wants to allow to stay, she also discovers that occasionally one recycles back.)  Only a few of the husbands are allowed to stay more than 1 night.  Within a week or too, she usually has decided that he must go for one reason or another.  She learns that no one will believe her if she tries to tell them what is happening until one of the husbands becomes frustrated with her and starts climbing back up into the attic without any directions from her.  Confused about how he seems to know that it is the way to escape her, she stops him and he reveals that he is a "traveling" husband who has learned that he can leave any relationship by reentering the place he has arrived.  They realize that it is nice to communicate with someone who understands each other's situation, and they make a plan to try to stay in contact after his departure due to the fact that they have permanent email addresses that don't change and that her phone number never changes although his does.  He can call her from his new "unknown" number each time, and if she needs to reach him before he calls, she can write to his email address.  Anyway, his humor is the best part toward the end of the book because the carousel of husbands becomes rather tedius for both the reader and her (along with my frustration with some rather stupid decisions made by the the woman).  It all comes to a satisfying conclusion.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5 although I think that the last third deserved a half of a star lower rating.

Vigil by George Saunders

Wednesday, Apr. 8, 2026--San Antonio

Vigil by George Saunders is one of several of his books I have read.  All have been interesting.  This is a short one about a Texas oligarch who is in his last dying day.  Born poor and with his ego suffering from being much shorter than most men, he has strived to build his fortune, to become known, respected, and consulted by world leaders, to become someone who never had to tolerate anyone he didn't want to tolerate and who took advantage of everyone he could.  God has sent Jill, the spirit of a young woman who died accidentally (blown up in her husband's vehicle which she had taken for the day instead of him), to comfort the oligarch and guide him to understanding the wrongs he has done and to apologize and receive absolution for them so that he can be elevated when he dies.  (The alternative is to live as a spirit on earth hoping that he can become worthy of being elevated over time--hopefully within centuries.)  The oligarch, however, is proud of his life and unwilling to admit and accept the wrongs he has done even as one spirit after another who is still confined to being an earth spirit comes to try to tell him about those wrongs.  He considers himself to be so important that his young woman spirit (communicating with him via their minds as he rests in a coma) is unworthy to even be near him and, like the other visiting spirits who he badmouths and curses, he does the same to her.  She has eased so many other (about 350) into elevation.  But this man is not going to be easy if at all possible to reach that point.  Those are the details, but the book is really about corporate greed, problems that develop because of capitalism, and environmental degragation that results from both of those.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.

You've Found Oliver by Dustin Thao

Sunday, Apr. 5, 2026--San Antonio

You've Found Oliver by Dustin Thao is a novel by a writer who will be attending the San Antonio Book Festival this month.  It's a follow-up book to one about Oliver's best friend entitled You've Reached Sam which I have not read.  In this book, Oliver and Julie (Sam's girl friend) have become close friends in their efforts to deal with Sam's death.  Unknown to Julie, however, is that Oliver has been "talking" one-way to Sam by texting his phone number regulary.  A year has passed, and while thinking of stopping and erasing the texts as an effort to move on with his life, Oliver accidentally dials the number.  A man answers.  It's not Sam, but it is another male college freshman named Ben who now has been assigned Sam's old number.  Oliver is a bit embarrassed about the texts he has sent, but Ben downplays that concern and explains that he didn't block the number because it seemed as if Oliver needed to send the texts as a way of dealing with the loss of his best friend.  From there, it becomes the story of Oliver and Ben who happen to both be gay.  Oliver goes to Central Washington University and Ben goes to the University of Washington.  They decide to meet and seem to like each other.  But strange things keep happening at the beginning of each meeting.  Then they realize that at each meeting it is always late fall in Ben's life, but early spring in Oliver's.  What is going on?  How could this be happening?  And why, when they meet in Seattle or in Ellenburg, it is always on Ben's time line?  It becomes an interesting story of trying to figure everything out as the two find themselves falling in love and noticing that unexpected things are changing in the lives of others they know because of their new connection to each other.  It only took parts of two days to read the story.  I gave the book 4 1/2 stars out of 5.